Cultivating a Data Science Learning Community

Poster for 2021 Internal Funding Showcas

Adapting to Changes in Publishing When Searching for Alternatives and Reporting on Animal Research: A Librarian's Perspective.

Since the inaugural issue of ATLA, many changes within publishing have occurred, impacting when, where, and how researchers conduct literature searches for non-animal alternatives. Such changes include increased rate of growth in scientific publications, greater number of databases and online resources available to search, opportunities for open and almost immediate dissemination of research outputs such as preprints and method protocols, and the development of reporting guidelines for animal research. Here we offer a librarian's perspective on these changes and advice on how to manage them to enable robust and diverse alternatives to be implemented in future research

Data Management Practices of Health Sciences Researchers

This study was approved and granted exempt status from the University’s Institutional Review Board (IRB). Librarians at the University of Pittsburgh Health Sciences Library System conducted a 25-question online survey of the data management practices of researchers within the six schools of the health sciences (School of Medicine, School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences, Graduate School of Public Health, School of Nursing, School of Pharmacy, and School of Dental Medicine). The survey was administered via SurveyMonkey. Questions included researchers’ demographics and data management practices such as the use of file naming conventions, assignment of metadata to data files, storage of working and back-up data, data accessibility, and the use of data management plans (survey instrument provided). All multiple choice questions required a response and the majority were “check all that apply.” Participants were recruited between June 4 and June 21, 2013. A non-targeted message requesting confidential participation in a research study to collect information on research data management practices was distributed to multiple health sciences listservs in the university and posted on the library’s home page and Molecular Biology blog. A reminder was sent once during the 17-day survey period. No incentives were offered. Text provided as the “other” answer in multiple choice and open-ended questions was categorized independently by the three authors, who reached agreement on any discrepancies for final coding

Data Discovery Collaboration (DDC)

The Data Discovery Collaboration (DDC) is a multi-institutional consortium that works together in order to address concerns around data discovery through discussions of metadata, outreach, software development, and systems and metadata interoperability. This OSF project holds documents related to ongoing and completed projects at the DDC that we want to share with the public. If you want to learn more about our members, our structure, or joining, please visit our website, datadiscoverycollaboration.org Contributors listed here are the administrators of the OSF page. Contributors to the documents include all members of the DDC

Data Curation through Catalogs: A Repository-Independent Model for Data Discovery

Institutional data repositories are the acknowledged gold standard for data curation platforms in academic libraries. But not every institution can sustain a repository, and not every dataset can be archived due to legal, ethical, or authorial constraints. Data catalogs—metadata-only indices of research data that provide detailed access instructions and conditions for use—are one potential solution, and may be especially suitable for "challenging" datasets. This article presents the strengths of data catalogs for increasing the discoverability and accessibility of research data. The authors argue that data catalogs are a viable alternative or complement to data repositories, and provide examples from their institutions' experiences to show how their data catalogs address specific curatorial requirements. The article also reports on the development of a community of practice for data catalogs and data discovery initiatives

2022 Open Scholarship and Research Impact Challenge: Series Materials

The University of Pittsburgh's 2022 Open Scholarship and Research Impact Challenge comprised a two-week calendar of events, March 28-April 8, focused on giving researchers practical tools to make their research more accessible, more reproducible, more connected to the public welfare, and more in line with their personal values. This dataset compiles the Challenge's online materials in several reusable formats for running challenges in other settings and/or for further adaptation. Available formats are HTML (best for viewing); Markdown (plain text with minimal formatting, also usable on GitHub); PDF; and Word (docx). Materials have been adapted from their original format. The file webpage_overview.pdf serves as an example of what the original pages looked like. The documents in this repository were created with Quarto and RStudio. These materials were created by the University of Pittsburgh's Health Sciences Library System and University Library System. This work was funded by the Pitt Year of Data and Society initiative

Open Scholarship and Research Impact Challenge

Pitt’s Open Scholarship and Research Impact Challenge comprises a two-week calendar of events focused on giving researchers practical tools to make their research more accessible, more reproducible, more connected to the public welfare, and more in line with their personal values

known as Love Your Data in 2016 - 2017

All pages from the Love Data Week event website are archived here in PDF. Love Data Week was established in 2016 as Love Your Data week. Originally created in the USA, it quickly grew to an international event in which a wide range of institutions, organizations, scholars, students, and other data lovers could celebrate their data. Coordinated by Heather Coates, the planning committee developed themes, wrote, curated content, developed activities, all to celebrate data in all its forms, promote good research data management strategies, ask hard questions about the role of data in our lives, and share data success and horror stories. Though the website is defunct, the event lives on, driven by the community